moving on

My mom June and stepfather Steve have talked of retiring and moving to Maine for years. They have both lived in my hometown of Hollis, New Hampshire, for more than 35 years so deciding to move was no easy decision. At long last, they bit the bullet and put the house on the market. It sold within two weeks!

I went down a few weeks ago with Dakota to start cleaning out "my stuff." I'm embarrassed to admit that my room still looked exactly as it did when I lived there in high school! I brought my camera with me and took a few pictures to remember the house before the packing begins. My 16-35mm wide angle lens was in the shop, so the 24-70mm views are a little tight for my liking but still give you an idea.

It was SO odd to see a For Sale sign out front. :(My parents built this house just after they were married and we moved in before I started high school.A quick peek at the first floor layout. We have so many memories from this place! The open layout was perfect for parties, and boy! Did we have many! Superbowl parties, semi-formal potlucks, teacher appreciation dinners (really), National Honor Society meetings, birthday parties, graduation parties and my sister's bridal shower.Our family photo wall. Anyone else have that same bowl cut? The horror!My parents have a photo wall of my work in their bedroom, showcasing their favorite pictures from my early start in high school and college photography. Too cute.And this is my bedroom, missing just a few things from when I lived here!So many mementos.And under my bed, boxes of notes and letters from 6th grade on up!

This house was an amazingly warm home to live during my teen years. And I loved bringing college friends back during school breaks and then visiting when I moved to DC after college. It will be hard not to have this beautiful place to return to for family gatherings, but I am really proud of mom & Steve for seizing the opportunity and fulfilling their dream of being Maine-iacs, too! It will be wonderful to have them closer.

Oh my goodness. I just went through the same thing during Thanksgiving. My sister and I went down to my dad's house for Thanksgiving and we spent the afternoon going through dozens and dozens of boxes with our toys, clothes, even our paperwork from kindergarden. (I just turned 26 so that was a longg time ago). My bedroom is now the primary guest room so it was strange to truly clean everything out but I've been married for 1.5 years so it was time to take it all down. Best wishes for your upcoming wedding!